Monday, September 11, 2006

How Did the Chazon Ish Know So Much About Medicine?

Shu"t Shevet HaLevi Chelek 10, Orach Chaim 13:

Question: From where did the Chazon Ish draw his amazing knowledge regarding medicine?

Answer: It is clear to me that it is by the power of learning Torah Lishmah, that it is explained in the sixth Perek of Avos that one of the signs of this is that they reveal to him secrets of the Torah, meaning, secrets of the Torah that it is impossible for the human intellect to arrive at, but nevertheless they reveal them to him as a gift from Heaven, and in addition he, zt"l, had a special innate sense in the field of surgery and the fundamentals of nature, and everything was derived from the power of Torah, and we find such by the earlier ones (the Rambam, the Ramban, and other Gedolei Doros) that they were really doctors, and the main thing was that they drew from the wellsprings of Torah, that their senses were sanctified through it.

And it is now close to fifty years that I have been a Rav in the area, and I was very close to the Chazon Ish zy"a, I visited then the true Gaon, author of Even HaAzel, the Gaon R' Isser Zalman Meltzer ztlh"h, and he knew of my relationship with the Chazon Ish, and after he heard a number of things from me he told me with fascination, "The Chazon Ish paskens Dinei Nefashos in moments (whether to operate or not, and the like), and the wonder is, he said, that more than 90% of the time he merits to be in line with the truth and success."